MedCruise participates in the third edition of the International Conference Black Sea Cruise 2012 hosted by Odessa.
On September 20-21 2012 the port of Odessa in collaboration with the Association of Mediterranean Cruise Ports (MedCruise) and the Black and Azov Seas Ports Association (BASPA) held the third International Conference “Black Sea Cruise 2012†gathering over 125 representatives from 16 countries.
Among them there were representatives from major cruise lines and industry leaders like John Tercek and Francisco Reddel Royal Caribbean International Eduardo López-Puertas and Manuel RodrÃguez Pullmantur; Graem Adams Seadream; Tine Oelmann TUI Cruises; Steve John Carnival; Peter Wild Peter Wild International; representatives from ports ministries of transport and tourism; and various cruise industry players from Ukraine Russia Greece Slovenia Croatia Romania Georgia Turkey Italy USA Great Britain and others.
On September 20 MedCruise had a meeting with the participants of the Marketing Project “Cruise Black Seaâ€. The objective of the meeting was to find ways of increasing the cruise industry in the Black Sea. Most of the cruise ports in the region became MedCruise members in the last years and the Black Sea has gained recognition internationally attracting the interest of major cruise lines some of which are already operating in the area.
MedCruise President Stavros Hatzakos participated as speaker at the conferences that took place on September 21 where he presented the Association and spoke about the history of MedCruise in the Black Sea region the benefits of joining the Association and the prospects for the future.
The objective of the conference was to have cruise lines and the regional ports work together to discuss the present and the future of the cruise business in the Black Sea. It was clear that cruise industry in the region has a great potential for growth. It was emphasized the economic interest of the region due to the small distances between the region ports the great potential of its historical sites and especially the favorable location of Odessa most likely to become a home port of the region serving central Europe and Russia.
Odessa’s General Manager and MedCruise Senior Vice President Yuriy Vaskov spoke about the creation of their own shorex infrastructure in the Ukranian Black Sea Ports. He said that concession provided by law being one of the main forms of public-private partnership gives foreign companies opportunity to settle on the Ukrainian cruise market. Vaskov also went through the undergoing projects of reconstruction of some ports in the Black Sea like Sochi who already started the work and Batumi who will start its reconstruction at the end of this year. It was also announced the construction of a new airport in Odessa expected to start operating in two years.
On Saturday the last day of the event cruise lines and port delegates went on a tour to the main attractions of the city and visited the passenger terminal of Odessa Port which keeps increasing its cruise traffic. In 2012 the port will accept 122 cruise calls. It’s remarkable that on the main conference day September 21 MSC Opera called at Odessa port to perform the interporting for the first time in 2012. There are three such cruises scheduled for 2012. Odessa’s Passenger Terminal has been an interporting port for MSC Cruises vessels since 2008.
MedCruise President Stavros Hatzakos speaks at the conference.
General Manager of Port of Odessa and MedCruise SVP Yuriy Vaskov welcomes delegates and guests.
MedCruise meets with Cruise Black Sea Marketing Project Participants.
From left to right: Teodor Patrichi (Port of Constantza) Maria de Larratea (MedCruise Secretary General) Stavros Hatzakos (MedCruise President) Yuriy Vaskov (General Manager Port of Odessa and MedCruise SVP) Elena Tyshchenko (Adviser to General Manager Port of Odessa).
